Apparently, a Bears fan hurled the N-word slur at Collins and spit at him, hitting Collins in the face as he tried to give away his gloves to a Packers fan. Predictably – and understandably – that pissed off Collins. Now, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes, the NFL is looking into the incident.

"I was made aware of it by our security department," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "I have not seen the video. I know the NFL is looking into the matter. I understand Nick's story as far as what happened and what our security people that were there, and I support Nick 100 percent.”

These kinds of fans strike me as cowards of the highest order. Yeah, he could spit at Collins and use a racial epithet against him, because he was in the stands, about 10 feet above Collins.

But do you think if the fan met Collins on Lakeshore Drive, he’d have anything but nice things to say to Collins? It’d be something like, “Wow, Mr. Collins, it sure is great to meet you. I’m a big fan.”

There’d be no N-word, because the fan wouldn’t have a barrier protecting him from what I assume would be an angry, angry NFL player. A coward, I tell you.

Before the season began, I was pretty sure Chicago was overrated. I had never been impressed with the consistency of QB Jay Cutler. I didn’t think RB Matt Forte could be effective. I was weary about offensive coordinator Mike Martz. The defense would be fine – actually, I expected it to be very good – but I didn’t think the offense could keep the team in games.

Through three games – all Bears victories, including a less-than-impressive win in the season-opener against Detroit – there are still plenty of questions for the offense. But then again, the defense has been very good, and Cutler has done well enough to lead Chicago to the top of the NFC North division.

“It’s fun,” Cutler told ESPN’s Suzy Kolber after the game. “That’s all you can ask for. The defense did a great job. We still felt the whole game we were killing ourselves. But we came up big at the end of the night.”

OK, let’s talk about the real reason Chicago won or – more appropriately – how the Packers lost this game.

Green Bay outgained Chicago 379-298, but the Packers blew it for themselves. They tied a club record that had stood since 1945 with 17 penalties for 152 yards. Many of them, especially late in the game, were undisciplined and, frankly, stupid. Frank Zombo had a helmet-to-helmet hit on Cutler that wiped out an interception. There was the bad personal foul penalty by Nick Collins, and there was a horrendous pass interference by Morgan Burnett to give Bears possession deep in Packers territory.

If Burnett’s pass interference was horrendous, the play of Green Bay’s special teams was atrocious. Bears returner Devin Hester ran back a punt return for a touchdown and should have had another (speaking of which, why in the hell are you kicking to him in the first place?). Bears DE Julius Peppers blocked a Mason Crosby FG attempt. Green Bay got nothing with their return game. And let’s not even get into that last-second kickoff return of desperation that featured about 15 forward passes (the flags were gone, and after the officials would finish throwing their hats, they were going to have to start throwing their whistles).

“You can’t play football like that,” Mike McCarthy said in the postgame presser when asked about the penalties.

That’s true, Mike. But let’s not let the coaching staff off the hook here. After James Jones’ fumble with a little more than 2 minutes to play gave the Bears possession near mid-field, for some reason – even though it should have been abundantly clear to whoever was speaking in McCarthy’s ear that the call was good – McCarthy threw the challenge flag.

It was pretty obvious after looking at one replay that the fumble recovery was legit. Yet McCarthy challenged and lost a timeout. It helped his squad lose the game (hey, at least the Packers would have had more time after Robbie Gould's field goal).

This was a game Green Bay should have won. This was a game the Bears should have lost.

It’s rarely a good thing when a player who has lost a battle for a starting position isn’t informed of the coach’s decision until the media who have been informed of the coach’s decision asks said player about … um … said decision.

Such was the case today when Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy declared that Daryn Colledge (that's his mug shot on the right) had won the starting LG job over first-round pick Bryan Bulaga for the season-opener against the Eagles.

After he was told he would not be a starter, Bulaga said, “This is the first I know about it, so we’ll see. I’m sure they have a plan and we’ll just take it day by day. … He won the job, Coach made a decision. That’s what it is. Obviously I’m disappointed I’m not the guy, but been nicked up a little bit. That’s just the way it goes.”

I do love Colledge’s response, though.

“Awesome, I didn’t know I wasn’t the starter originally,” said Colledge.

No. 1: coach Mike McCarthy, sufficiently impressed with the way his team practiced last week, canceled the team’s final workout and meetings of the offseason, which would have occurred Wednesday.

“I've felt really coming off of Wednesday's and Thursday's practice last week that it was appropriate,” he told reporters at his news conference. “I think our players have earned that and deserve that.”

No. 2: Home run derby!!!

McCarthy called it a team-building event, and the prize was a secret that rested underneath a tarp on the sideline. Coaches said the winner would receive the car that was hidden under the covering. But after rookie OT Bryan Bulaga clubbed the longest hit to win the prize, the tarp was removed and there sat a trunk-less, door-less Saturn.

As ESPN.com’s Kevin Seifert noted, the words, “To Super Bowl – Dallas” were spray-pained on the side. Wrote Seifert: “If it leaves now, the car could probably make it to Texas by January.”

--Josh Katzowitz

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